1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to data storage and backup solutions for archiving data and recovering data, and, more particularly, to software, hardware, systems, and methods for providing users with point-in-time or user-defined views of stored data or backups.
2. The Relevant Technology
The need for reliable backup and archiving of information is well known. Businesses are devoting large amounts of time and money toward information system (IS) resources that are devoted to providing backup and archive of information resident in computers and servers within their organizations that produce and rely upon digital information. For example, a number of backup solutions have been developed that allow businesses and other entities to efficiently manage their data storage by providing backups of client files in a cost-effective manner and often with large reductions in the size of the backups (e.g., a 90 percent reduction in data volume or the like can be achieved when only one version of a data object or data set/subset is stored along with changes to those objects and data sets).
Typically, these backup storages provide a consolidated store of enterprise information and may utilize high efficiency storage applications such as content addressed storage (CAS) and other techniques to reduce the amount of data stored in the backup or stored data files. Generally, CAS applications involve a storage technique for content that is in its final form, i.e., fixed content, or that is not changed frequently. CAS assigns an identifier to the data so that it can be accessed no matter where it is located. For example, a hash value may be assigned to each portion or subset of a data set that is to be data protected or backed up. Presently, CAS applications are provided in distributed or networked storage systems designed for CAS, and storage applications use CAS programming interface (API) or the like to store and locate CAS-based files in the distributed system or network.
The use of CAS and other high efficiency storage applications enables data protection systems to store online multi-year archives of backup data by removing storage of redundant data because complete copies of data sets do not have to be stored as long as the content is stored and available somewhere in the system. CAS-based backup applications have also improved the usage network and data storage resources with better distribution of data throughout a multi-node data storage system. CAS-based backup applications are also desirable because multi-year or other large backup archives can be stored easily since only a single instance of any particular data object (i.e., content) is stored regardless of how many times the object or content is discovered with the data set being protected or backed up. With CAS, the storage address for any data element or content is generated by an analysis of the contents of the data set itself. Since an exclusive storage address is generated for each unique data element (which is matched with a unique identifier) and the storage address points to the location for the data element, CAS-based architectures have found favor in the storage industry because they reduce the volume of data stored as each unique data object is stored only once within the data storage system.
The available high efficiency storage applications typically are provided on one or more servers at or linked with enterprise or client computer systems and interoperate with external archive systems (such as tape solutions or systems). The high efficiency storage applications are effective at storing data files, e.g., by storing numerous subsets or atomics of the data in a file, and allowing ready retrieval for recovery, restore, or access on demand. The backups or stored data files are accessible because the high efficiency storage applications generate and maintain directories and/or maps to the stored files and their atomics, data subsets, or data objects. Such directories also often include metadata pertaining to each of the backups.
While many of the existing backup solutions provide high efficiency data storage, there are growing demands that the backups be more readily manageable and accessible. In other words, backup users want to be able to leverage their backups to provide value beyond simply the costs associated with data protection and data retention requirements.